Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Glutton for Punishment

Since I totally wasted yesterday goofing off in pinterest, I was determined to actually manage some productive work today. I guess I just didn't feel like staining my closet. Instead my motivation drew me in another direction...

Paint Stripping Progress - Day 1

I had planned to strip this woodwork next year, but I just kept thinking about how it made a lot more sense to refinish the stairs at the same time as the floors in the upstairs bedrooms. And I'm really not going to be thrilled about tromping through a construction zone next year when we're living upstairs again. So today, on a whim, I got started.

Most of the paint is coming off pretty well. The hardest part is the ½-inch gap between the balusters. None of the paint scrapers are skinny enough to fit in the space. Though, Jeff discovered we could get most of the paint off with the heat gun and our 6-in-1 tool.

It's going to be a challenge to strip this staircase in place. It is possible we'll pull the pieces, strip them and then reinstall them. But I'm terrified we'll break some of the wood and it really is gorgeous old growth douglas fir so that would be a tragedy. Therefore, I'm trying to see if it's possible to strip in place.

I do need to race through this project, though. I have to have all this woodwork finished, the floors refinished, and the rooms furnished by December. Even though it seems like plenty of time, we also have a bunch of other projects outside that need to be finished too (like the gutters).

I've never seen a stair rail like that, not in a Craftsman house, at least. It's unique.

Mine is the kind with ordinary boring square baluster 5 inches on center variety, and it was fairly easy to pry off the fillets top and bottom and remove them and the balusters for stripping and refinishing. But I can see from the pictures why you would be leery of messing with what you have.

Hi Hugh, while stripping the paint with the paint remover I have found that the chemical does a good job removing the finish from the fir floors. However, we are actually planning to hire a professional to refinish the floors. I don't trust our skill with 100 year old doug fir flooring, which is quite a soft wood. I'd hate to sand too far through it.